Kerala HC seeks clarification from state on whether order exempting Vigilance department from RTI includes investigations against public officials

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The Kerala High Court has asked the state government to clarify the order that excludes sections T1 and T2 of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) from the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice VM Syam Kumar directed the state to inform the court whether the section exemption order applies to investigations against public officials. The bench orally stated that apart from this, other information held by the Vigilance Section is sensitive and cannot be made available to the public through the RTI Act.

The court was hearing two public interest litigations by lawyer PK Muralikrishnan and social activist Joy Kaitharath challenging the state government’s order to exclude sections.

The petitioners argued that although the RTI Act provided an exemption for intelligence and security organizations, one of the provisions excluded information related to allegations of corruption and human rights abuses from the protection afforded to these organizations.

They argued that the VACB is an investigative police agency tasked with enforcing the Prevention of Corruption Act and not an intelligence and security organization as stated in the Act. They informed the court that the T1 section dealt with high-level vigilance investigations, confidential records, personnel information, sensitive verifications and T2 dealt with intelligence inputs, source reports, information gathered by vigilance personnel and coordination of surprise inspections.

The court took note of the Supreme Court’s earlier observation that a vigilante inquiry into allegations of corruption against senior officials cannot be considered an exemption under the intelligence and security agencies in the RTI Act.

Published – 28 Oct 2026 21:07 IST